1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a housing for receiving individual components of a heating or cooling installation.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
For cladding and thermal insulation of pipelines, one-piece coverings, made from thermally insulating material in the form of cylindrical jackets, are slid over the lines in a known manner. The coverings may be several centimeters thick. Because of its one-piece construction, this cladding has a very favorable heat insulating capacity. Heat bridges such as occur when two shells are butt-jointed are prevented to a great extent. However, this cladding can be fitted only by sliding it over the pipeline from a free end of the pipeline. The cladding is not suitable for subsequently providing an already installed heating installation with heat insulation. For pipe inspection purposes, such coverings must be cut along their length. The cut up coverings can be reused only at the expense of a diminished heat insulating capacity.
For these reasons, half-shells which are connected by a butt joint at their connecting locations have also been used as thermally insulating coverings for pipelines. To hold the shells together, the joint location is covered with an adhesive strip connecting the outer surface areas of the two half-shells along the joint location. Although this design enables subsequent fitting of cladding and inspection of pipelines, it requires a complicated and time-consuming gluing of the joint location. In addition, a butt joint always poses the risk of unwanted heat transfer.
Finally, in a known manner, piping, connections and fittings of a heating or cooling installation which are combined in ready-to-install structural components are accommodated in a housing comprising two half-shells made from heat-insulating plastic, in particular expanded polypropylene. In order to close the two half-shells simply and quickly and to prevent heat bridges, the joint area is not flush but, instead is constructed in the form of a single-undercut mortise or rabbet on one half-shell and a corresponding groove on the other half-shell (EP 0 561 037 A1). When the two half-shells are pressed together, a snapping in and interlocking take place via the undercut surfaces.
In order for the two half-shells to be pressed together enabling the undercut surfaces to snap together, the undercut rabbets lying at right angles to the movement direction of the half-shells must be placed exactly one upon the other by their planar partial surfaces, since the vertical pressure to be applied for snapping in must cause a yielding toward the side exclusively by means of the elasticity of the material so that the edge of the upper rabbet can slide over that of the lower rabbet. This accuracy of position can often not be accomplished in the field. If this is not achieved, tilting will cause the rabbet connection to snap in at one edge but not at the opposite edge which results in an incomplete enclosure of the pipe.